Sophy Viner and Owen Leath serve as dramatic foils to Anna Leath and George Darrow. Anna Leath is uncertain not only of what she sees but of her own feelings throughout the novel.

In the last chapters, Anna goes back and forth from one attitude to another.

She gives herself to George Darrow; she feels that now she will be his forever. Then she starts to wonder when he will tire of her. Then she starts to resent the intimacy he has shared with Sophy. The younger woman in contrast has apparently worked through her feelings and can act upon them. Until Darrow appeared at Givre, she had little reason to think that she would ever see him again. When he turned up, she became aware of the falsity of her own position, not simply in relation to Owen but to herself. As she explains to Darrow, meeting him...